The invention relates to a driveshaft produced in one piece by a forming operation, especially for driving a motor vehicle, designed in the form of a symmetrical tubular shaft with a central tube region with a larger outer diameter, having end regions provided at both ends with toothed receiving regions for universal joints.
DE-PS 30 09 277 proposes a driveshaft of this type for being used as a side shaft in the motor vehicle drive. The driveshaft substantially consists of a tubular shaft comprising two ends with stepped diameters with receiving regions for the universal joints. The entire central part of the tubular shaft is designed to be cylindrical and has the maximum outer diameter. In order to achieve a uniform mechanical strength over the entire region of the tubular shaft, the wall thickness is reduced with an increasing outer diameter. The disadvantage of this design is that attention is paid to the aspect of mechanical strength only and that adjustment of the natural bending frequency to existing requirements can be achieved within a limited extent only, with the natural bending frequency as a rule being within the range of -an excitation frequency of the engine/transmission system so that an interfering vibration noise cannot be avoided.